Wes Streeting has piled more pressure on Keir Starmer by comparing Labour’s humiliation Caerphilly by-election defeat to the day the prime minister almost quit as party leader.

The health secretary said the result – which saw Labour receive just 11% of the vote in their former stronghold – was like a similar seismic loss in Hartlepool in 2021.

Starmer contemplated resigning after that defeat to the Tories, which came just a year after he had succeeded Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader.

In an interview with the Sunday Times, Streeting said the result in Caerphilly, where Plaid Cymru emerged victorious, was “this Labour government’s Hartlepool moment”.

However, he said he backed Starmer to turn around the party’s fortunes just as he had done four years ago.

He said: “When we wer

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